Slowing Down to Go Faster

The typical product development cycle involves a lot of late cycle learning that leads to rework as it is discovered that decisions made very early in the process need to be changed, and all the design work dependent upon those decisions has to be redone. And since learning is, by definition, unknown prior to the learning, product development schedules are often missed.

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In contrast, requiring visible knowledge that shows what decisions will lead to success before making those key decisions will pull that learning early in the process; decisions are delayed until that learning is done. That causes the detailed design work to happen later than it happens in a traditional development process (which can create concern for those moving to this Success Assured™ methodology for the first time). However, when the design works the first time, the time is more than made up in the end. Better yet, because the learning was done at a time when the engineers had flexibility and time, generally the resultant product is much higher quality, generating much higher customer satisfaction.

But the biggest benefits come in the following project using Success Assured™. The reusable knowledge generated in the first project's early learning is inherently applicable to the next project, and thus easily reused. So, the next project gets a running start, needing far less additional learning. Better yet, since there are no surprises in the first project's Test phase, most of the engineers on the first project can move to the second while it is still in its learning and optimization phases. Thus, long before the traditional process delivers its first mediocre products, the Success Assured™ process will have delivered its second- or even third-generation products. And that means even more learning from the outermost loop... the one that includes all your customers.

To learn more on cutting your own development cycle time in half (as adopting Success Assured™ has done for others), contact us now.